Sakkara Varatti or Sarkara Upperi or Jaggery Coated Plantain chips is one of the popular Kerala dish. We can get these chips in hotchips stores but we can make it at home easily with raw plantains. This Sakkara Upperi or Sakkara Varati is usually served in Onam Sadya. Plantains are chopped like crescents and then deep fried till they are crispy and then jaggery syrup is made and the fried plantain chips are coated in the jaggery syrup along with cumin powder, cardamom powder and dry ginger powder. Try this simple and yummy Sarkara varatti and share your experience!

Peel the plantains and soak them in 2 cups of water along with turmeric powder. The turmeric water prevents decolorisation and also removes the stickiness of the plantain. Leave the plantains soaked in turmeric water for 15 minutes

After 15 minutes, take out the plantains from water. Slit them vertically and then chop them into crescent size pieces about 1.5cm thickness

Place the chopped plantain pieces on the tissue paper to dry out any moisture

Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough, gently add hand full of plantain pieces and deep fry them till they are crispy. Keep the flame in medium while frying the plantain pieces. Generally one batch will take at least 15 minutes to get finished. Wait till all the bubble ceases and the plantain pieces are golden brown. If you drop a plantain piece in a bowl you should hear the dropping sound like a coin. You can also break a fried piece and check of the inner portion is soft or crispy. If the inner portion is soft, then it needs more frying. Make sure they are really crispy both outside as well as inside

Let the fried plantain chips cool down, meanwhile lets prepare the jaggery syrup. Heat a pan and add jaggery and 2 tablespoon of water. Allow the jaggery to get dissolved completely. Strain the juice and bring it to boil.

Keep stirring the jaggery juice till it reaches stone consistency. If you add a drop of syrup to cold water, you should be able to make a ball. The syrup should not dissolve in water, rather we should be able to shape it to a ball. This is the right consistency